History of STEM
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
Electricity
• 1821 – Michael Faraday publishes his discoveries on electromagnetic
rotation.
• 1831 – Faraday publishes his discoveries on electromagnetic induction.
• 1832 – Hippolyte Pixii of France builds the first Dynamo (DC Generator).
• 1871 – Zenobe Gramme creates the first Dyanmo that is capable of
commercial applications.
• 1882 – Thomas Edison opens a power station in New York.
• 1884 – Turin, Italy AC power is used to light up Edison light blubs on 25
miles of trolley track.
• 1886 – Great Barrington, MA: the first full AC power system is built by
William Stanly.
• Late 1880s – Nikola Tesla files multiple patents for polyphase AC motor and
power transmission.
• 1893 – The Chicago World’s Fair becomes the first all-electric World’s Fair
powered by Tesla’s AC Generators. This leads to AC being the electricity of
choice.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
Televisions
1878 – Existence of cathode rays are confirmed by William Crookes.
1897 – Karl Ferdinand Braun constructs a cathode ray tube scanning
device.
1927 – Philo Farnsworth transmits the first electronic television
image.
1929 – Vladimir Zworykin demonstrates the first practical electronic
system for both transmission and reception of images.
1943 – Zworykin develops a better camera tube – The Orthicon – with
enough light sensitivity to record outdoor events at night.
1948 – Louis Parker is granted a patent for a television receiver, the
“intercarrier sound system.”
1950 – Zenith creates the first television remote control.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
Televisions Continued
• 1953 – Color television broadcasting officially begins.
• 1956 – Robert Adler invents the first wireless remote control.
• 1962 – AT&T launches the first satellite to send television
signals, the Telstar.
• 1964 – The first prototype for a plasma display is invented.
• 1976 – VHS home recording format is introduced.
• 1981 – HDTV is demonstrated in the US by Japan’s
government-owned broadcasting service.
• 1991 – US testing of HDTV systems begins.
• 1995 – Flat-screen plasma televisions are introduced.
• 1999 – TiVo goes on sale.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
Airplanes
• 1799 – Sir George Cayley defined list and drag and presented the
first scientific design for a fixed wing aircraft.
• 1849 – A young boy made the first manned flight in a glider
designed by Cayley.
• 1875 – Felix du Temple made the first attempt at powered flight.
• 1894 – Sir Kiram Maxim made a successful takeoff in a biplane but
the flight was uncontrolled.
• 1903 – Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first controlled
powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17.
• 1914 – Automatic gyrostabilizer leads to the first automatic pilot
produced two years later.
• 1917 – The first all metal plane, Junker J4, is introduced.
Airplanes Continued
• 1933 – Boeing 247 is introduced as the first modern
commercial airliner.
• 1937 – First jet engines are tested.
• 1947 - Air Force pilot Charles Yeager is the first person to break
the sound barrier.
• 1949 – First jet-powered commercial airplane
• 1969 – Boeing conducts first flights of the 747.
• 2003 – The first civilian tilt rotor aircraft had a successful 36minute flight at Bell Textron Flight Research Center in Texas.
• 2007 – Airbus A380 – the world’s largest commercial plane
makes first flight in the United States.
• 2012 – First electric aircraft to fly over 200 mph.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
Cartesian Geometry
• 1637 – Descartes publishes his ideas on geometry in a treatise
called “La Geometrie.”
• “Any problem in geometry can easily be reduced to such terms
that a knowledge of the length of certain lines is sufficient for
its construction.”
• Cartesian geometry is the basis of many drafting programs.
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.
References
• Smoller, L. (2001, March 1). Decartes and the birth of analytic geometry.
Retrieved November 12, 2014, from
http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/descartes.html
• Energy Timelines. (2007, October 1). Retrieved November 13, 2014, from
http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=tl_electricity
• Lantero, A. (Ed.). (2014, November 18). The war of currents: AC vs. DC
power. Retrieved December 11, 2014, from http://energy.gov/articles/warcurrents-ac-vs-dc-power
• Garrett, L. (Ed.). (n.d.). History of flight timeline. Retrieved December 5,
2014, from http://www.aiaa.org/secondaryTwocolumn.aspx?id=5674
• Television history – A timeline. (2012, January 1). Retrieved December 11,
2014, from
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/mason_&_associates/documents/ti
meline.pdf
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2015. All rights reserved.